Hugh Reid Belknap

Major, Paymaster

United States Army

Hugh Reid Belknap, the eldest son of William Worth and Cora Leroy Belknap, was born on 1 September 1860, in Keokuk, Iowa. 

He attended school in Keokuk, the Adams Academy in Quincy, Massachusetts, and finally completing his education at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

On 22 September 1897, Hugh married Marietta Vermilyea Steele in Grant County, Indiana.

At 18 years old, Hugh started working for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company filling various positions until he retired in 1892 to become superintendent of the South Side Rapid Transit Railroad in Chicago.  Hugh later turned to politics where he successfully contested, as a Republican, the election of Lawrence E. McGann to the Fifty-fourth Congress.  He was reelected to the Fifty-fifth Congress and served from December 27, 1895, to March 3, 1899.  Hugh did not win re-election to the Fifty-sixth Congress in 1898. 

 In March 1899 Hugh was appointed a Volunteer Paymaster in the U.S. Army.  Two years later he was appointed a major in the regular Army.  In July 1901, Hugh (accompanied by his wife) sailed for the Philippines.  He started on his first pay trip within two weeks after arriving in Manila.  His first stop was at Calamba (on the island of Laguna), where he became ill and required surgery.  Word was immediately sent to Major Elijah W. Halford, Chief Paymaster, and his wife.  Upon Major Halford’s arrival, Hugh told him: “Major, I have two requests to make.  I want you to be kind as possible to my poor wife, whom I must leave far away from her home and among strangers.  And I want you to pray for me.”  Hugh died the next day, 12 November 1901.

Major Hugh Reid Belknap was buried with full military in Arlington National Cemetery.

Source of information:

1.  Biographical Directory of the American Congress [database online]. Orem, UT: MyFamily.com, Inc., 1998. Original data: Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949: The Continental Congress September 5, 1774, to October 21, 1788 and The Congress of the United StatesFrom the First to the Eightieth Congress March 4, 1789 to January 3, 1949, Inclusive. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1950.

 2.  Encyclopedia of American History [database online]. Orem, UT: Ancestry.com, 1997. Original data: Herringshaw, Thomas William. Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century, Chicago, IL: American Publishers' Association, 1902.

 3.  Arlington National Cemetery (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/hrbelkna.htm).

 4.  The Washington Post, 3 July 1904, page 7.